Sikh Priest`s Arrest Sets Off Fusillade

AMRITSAR, INDIA — A powerful Sikh leader was arrested as he defied police and tried to enter the besieged Golden Temple Thursday, triggering new violence in the standoff at the Sikhs` holiest shrine.

Jasbir Singh Rode, chief priest of the Akal Takht, which is part of the temple complex, was detained with three other Sikh priests and 26 followers as they marched through police barricades toward the temple.

The arrests were followed by an exchange of gunfire between about 100 Sikh extremists holed up in the temple and 3,000 police and paramilitary commandos on rooftops ringing the vast shrine. Three people were killed in the shooting, police said, bringing the death toll since Monday to 13.

Calling for an end to the four-day standoff between Sikh militants and security forces, Rode told police officials, ``The rituals inside the temple should be preserved at all costs. We`ll make all sacrifices to restore the sanctity of the temple.``

Rode`s arrest was a blow to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi`s hopes for a political settlement to Punjab`s ethnic conflict. This year, Sikh militants demanding their own homeland have killed about 800 people, police estimate.

In March, Gandhi released Rode and 44 other Sikhs with extremist links in a move to persuade the militants to drop their separatist demands and negotiate with the government. However, the move has failed to quell terrorist violence in Punjab and surrounding states.

Local journalists and observers in Amritsar say Rode`s standing with the militants also has slipped as the religious leader has not whole-heartedly endorsed the demand for a Sikh homeland.

Police officials said Rode`s arrest-technically, for a curfew violation-was intended to protect the priest and to prevent furthur violence. Officials did not say how long Rode would be held, but observers predicted he would be held for about two weeks.

``Some exchanges of firing had started, and they (Rode and the others)

would have been caught in the crossfire, which would have been very unfortunate,`` said K.P.S. Gill, Punjab`s top law enforcement officer. ``At that time there were no other options open to us.``

Police say 13 people have been killed in the Golden Temple confrontation, which began Monday when extremists tried to build a barricade outside the walls of the shrine.

Despite the mounting tension in Amritsar, the government shows no signs of sending its security forces into the Golden Temple complex.

A 1984 army attack on militants barricaded in the temple resulted in the deaths of about 1,000 people, including fundamentalist leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and deeply offended many Sikhs. Four months later, two Sikh security guards gunned down Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in retaliation for ordering the military operation against the shrine. Anti-Sikh rioting followed, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Sikhs in New Delhi and other north Indian areas.

Police refused to say how long they would wait before going into the temple, although one official said pressure would be maintained. The operation will be difficult, observers say, because the Golden Temple is set amid a maze of narrow streets and bazaars.

The blockade has stopped food deliveries into the shrine.

``They (the militants) could hold out for quite some time,`` said Gill, who recently took over as the state`s police chief. ``But we we can hold out for quite some time, too.``